Comments on: Guest Post: Not So Fast

By: Martin Willey

Martin Willey — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:31:04 +0000

Thanks for a great post. Effective fasting can turn on such personal things, thoughts and feelings. I am still trying to figure it out.

My favorite story about a “novice faster”: I baptized a woman on my mission. Shortly thereafter, she decided to fast one Sunday that her team would win World Cup in soccer. Her team lost. She told us, only partially in jest, that she planned to eat double the next Sunday. We asked the Gospel Essentials teacher to cover the topic of fasting carefully.

By: ellen

ellen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:10:34 +0000

#1 thanks, steve.

#2 hunter, my homies claim we all have at least one gift and we can aspire to receive more. you have one gift, BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! pray now and we’ll send you a second spiritual gift for only $4.99 in shipping and handling! ;-D

#3 hi ray! yeah, it’s me. for the record, ray is the one second most responsible (ie. to blame) for bringing me into this church.

#4 spot on, jeans. for me it was a chocolate covered strawberry left by a friend for no discernible reason.

#6 imagine, me motivating someone else. thanks, anon38! yes, fasting and dieting are two different things, and that day they felt like two very different things. i wish you well.

By: anon38

anon38 — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:45:48 +0000

Your post is motivating me to try to fast this coming Sunday. I’ve had kids (no fasting during pregnancy and nursing) and apparently too many excuses (I forget, my husband isn’t into it, I have to feed the kids).
Dieting always makes overeating a problem for me, so I manage my weight by not dieting and it is too easy to confuse fasting with dieting. It is, however, something different entirely.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:35:28 +0000

I had never heard of a “perpetual fast” before this, yet it is exactly the kind of thing that a student or singles ward would likely find intriguing. The whole ward gets to pull together and take interest in a joint project without the burden on any individual being more than reasonable.

Evocative scene, jeans! I like.

By: jeans

jeans — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:59:39 +0000

Very funny – I once had my non-member sister in law ask me why we called it Fast Sunday, when she was sure that the meetings seemed to go EXTRA slow on the days we’re thinking of food.

I remember watching a particularly good episode of Northern Exposure in which the main character, Dr. Fleischman (Jewish) was trying to fast for Yom Kippur. He’s not usually observant, so the townsfolk are imagining that the second his fast ends he will be in the diner ordering 3 blue plate specials. But sometime during that day, his fast starts to mean something to him, and he stops just complaining or focusing only on what he’s missing. The best scene is of him, sitting alone on a ridge, breaking his fast by simply eating an orange, savoring each section of it, slowly.

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:10:30 +0000

I love this post, Ellen – especially if you are who I think you are. There will be a lot of these lessons over the years, and I’m thankful that they don’t stop even for those of us who’ve been walking the church corridors and going hungry monthly for years. Line upon line, precept upon precept is a wonderful model.

Congrats (again, I think) on your new journey, and thanks for this post.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:10:17 +0000

Great post. Thanks.

I’ve come to believe that fasting is one of those spiritual gifts like teaching, having faith, bearing testimony, etc. I’ve also come to believe that it is one of those spiritual gifts that I don’t have.

By: Steve C.

Steve C. — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:03:04 +0000

Great insights into fasting. I think fasting is a principle that we all have to learn. I still dread the first Sunday of the month. Yet, when it’s all said and done, I’m always glad that I had fasted.

We are trying to teach our older children to fast. This past month I asked my (almost) ten year old if he would fast Sunday breakfast. We chose something we wanted to fast for (a lady in our branch who has given him piano lessons for years). He fasted. The next Sunday, he didn’t eat his pop tarts for breakfast. I asked him why. He said he was fasting again. I told him he only needed to fast once a month. His eyes lit up and he snatched a pop tart and devoured it. I guess there are some things about fasting I still need to teach him and some things about fasting he taught me.